Everyone says they’re tired. Me? I fell asleep behind the wheel and knew something was really wrong [Video]

Vancouver-based filmmaker Jenny Lee-Gilmore is the director of the documentary Little Miss Sleepy. In this First Person column, Lee-Gilmore explains what it’s like to live with narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that’s misunderstood and often misdiagnosed. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

I knew something was really wrong when I started to fall asleep while driving. 

For years, I had been tired. Really, really tired. People say that all the time, but my tiredness felt different. 

When I was in school, I often had trouble staying awake in class — and not just because I found math boring. My mum would pick me up after school, and I’d fall asleep in the car before she could even ask how my day went. 

No matter how much I slept, I could never shake my tiredness. 

When I was around 14, I went to see my family doctor. She initially suspected I had depression and later …